In a testament to the power of fans on the internet, Vancouver Canucks defenseman Rory Fitzpatrick as a write-in candidate received 550,177 votes but finished third in the contest for the two starting Western Conference defenseman for the 2007 NHL All-Star game scheduled for January 24 in Dallas. Fitzpatrick was just 22,892 votes out of a starting spot, and just 41,500 votes behind first place This blog has contained comprehensive coverage of the Rory Fitzpatrick campaign. As of the release of week 6 voting results, Rory was 35,000 votes behind, but his 64,000 votes in the final week were not enough to close the gap

Steve Schmid’s website VoteForRory has great links on the left side of his page to YouTube videos, and the Facebook and MySpace groups devoted to the campaign. Check it out. By the end of voting on January 2, the site had received over 339,000 hits, and had climbed over 375,000 hits by January12.

As of January 10, there were 31 different Rory Fitzpatrick videos up at YouTube, the most famous being two satirical attack ads posted December 10, one focused on Nicklas Lidstrom and viewed 44,256 times, and the other focused on Scott Niedermeyer and viewed 47,075 times.

MySA.com (1/12) David King: Vote for / votez pour Tony Parker (covers Rory, then links to a French site with both French and English versions boosting NBA Spurs player Tony Parker for the NBA All-Star game, including screensavers, videos, and a contest to win a trip from Paris to San Antonio. Voting ends January 21, if you are suffering NHL voting withdrawal)

The starting lineups for the NHL All-Star Game were announced Tuesday night, but the Vancouver Canucks defenseman had already received word that he wasn’t headed to Dallas. “It’s fine with me,” said Fitzpatrick, who is a lifelong resident of Irondequoit, N.Y., outside Rochester. “It’s over and that’s probably the best. The game will be played and will have all the stars in it.” Fitzpatrick was unwillingly thrust into the national hockey spotlight when Vote For Rory grew from a website message-board suggestion to an obsession for some fans … “It just continued to grow and grow,” Fitzpatrick said. “I didn’t try to encourage it or discourage it. I was more amazed at how it kept gaining momentum.” … He was never quite sure how to react to it all and felt awkward because he isn’t among the NHL’s elite players. But he was hurt when Don Cherry lashed out against him personally on a Hockey Night In Canada segment, calling him a freak and a joke. “That’s his gig. He likes to cause a commotion and he did,” Fitzpatrick said. “But that was just someone who wasn’t informed about the whole thing. It wasn’t my campaign. I wasn’t telling people to vote.”

Now that the whole goofy thing is over and nobody got hurt or seriously embarrassed, it’s amazing to step back and recognize that the NHL could have spent millions in publicity and never in a thousand years have gotten so much positive attention for the sport and for the all-star shindig as they did by accident. In a year – make that a century – when the NHL is suffering from the chronic indifference of a large segment of the American public, Fitzpatrick made more headlines south of the border than Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and Marian Hossa, combined.

With 24 wins already this season, few would argue that Luongo deserved his place in the Jan. 24 showcase but the Canucks netminder believes he benefited from a rousing grassroots internet campaign to get the unheralded Fitzpatrick voted into the all-star contest. “Definitely, that’s given I think, anybody that’s a Canucks fan and voted for Rory probably threw in a vote for me at the same time,” Luongo said during a teleconference on Wednesday. “I definitely think it had a big influence.” Getting Fitzpatrick into the All-Star game had mushroomed into a North American-wide obsession when a fan set up the voteforrory.com Web site.

In late November 2006, an online write-in campaign began supporting Rory Fitzpatrick for the online balloting for the 2007 NHL All-Star game. In final voting results, Rory finished in third place among Western Conference defensemen with 550,177 votes. The top two finishers got starting spots. Voting ended January 2, 2007. There has been extensive media and blog coverage of the improbable campaign. The first blog post on the Rory Fitzpatrick campaign appears to be from Boltsmag on November 20, 2006.

You conducted yourself with exemplary grace in a situation that snowballed into circus-like proportions. You endured the barbs and brickbats of jerks such as Don Cherry and Wayne Gretzky with nary a retort (though we did love the one jab you allowed yourself, about how a couple of months ago no one cared about the all-star game and now it’s “so precious.”) Cherry went so far as to call you a “freak,” saying your fans were laughing at you, not with you. In typical fashion, his Coaches’ Corner rant was full of mistakes (like when he said you haven’t played all year). Gretzky said you didn’t deserve to be there, even if the fans did vote you in. Others said the campaign made a mockery of the all-star game.We tip our hats to you. By taking the high road, remaining modest and understated, you showed us all why so many were willing to try and get you into the starting lineup.

The dream is over for Rory Fitzpatrick: The NHL’s story of the year – the write-in All-Star candidacy that earned a staggering 550K votes – fell 23,000 votes short. But it set a new standard for grassroots phenomena in the NHL and across fan-balloting in sports.

Finally, if the league has a heart and a conscience and a bit of a sense of humor, it sends Rory Fitzpatrick as well. The people have spoken and if you start Cheechoo over Selanne because of it, you put Fitzpatrick (who finished third in voting for defensemen in the west) on the team. It’s the right thing to do and for those in the league offices looking for a little media attention, this is a great story for outlets that don’t normally cover hockey and are looking for a little fun and human interest. All in all, it was a job well done by the fans and the league just needs to round it out now for this year’s All-Star Game to have some pretty exciting potential.

“Critics like the CBC’s Scott Morrison have been vocal, stating that fans have exploited a “flaw” with the NHL’s voting system by casting ballots for someone who is “unworthy”. Hockey Night in Canada’s Don Cherry even shared his thoughts recently calling the support of Fitzpatrick a joke. In this context, I disagree. First and foremost, this is a ballot for an All-Star game, not a general election. The process in place allows for multiple votes, and as such the results could be skewed by those who take the time to vote often. The intention was for fans to vote for who they wanted to see in the lineup. If the purpose was for only the “deserving” players who are having a good year to appear, then it defeats the purpose of the NHL allowing fans to select a write-in candidate.”

The main facebook group ‘Vote in Rory Fitzpatrick at the NHL All-Star game’ (site registration required) had 4,576 members by the end of voting on January 3. The facebook group was created by Riel Gallante of Universite Sainte-Anne, with both Gallante and Steve Schmid as admins. The groups nine officers hail from seven different (mostly Canadian) schools. The group page features a short bio of Rory, voting instructions, links to articles, audio, hfboards discussion threads, YouTube videos, and a link to the MySpace Rory group.There are 73 photos posted, 1014 wall posts, and a discussion board with 29 discussion threads with 292 posts. The group has even an offshoot Facebook group Cry Baby Don Cherry. In addition to the main Rory group at Facebook, there are 10 smaller Rory facebook groups with between 3 and 94 members each.

Some of the good wall posts at Facebook

Here’s a selection of some of the better wall posts on the Facebook group:

I say we all keep voting and when it comes down to crunch time we all have a mass vote where everybody on the internet absolutely unloads votes for rory moving him from 3rd to 1st in an unexpected, go for gold, explosion to the finish line that will leave bettman baffled.

Teams made up of all highpriced all-stars dont ever do anything , look at Canada’s team in the Olympics, couldn’t have been better. Teams need the Rory’s because they are what holds the team together and wins games

Better 3rd now then next week. I think him being third woke everyone up and reminded ppl to vote. LET’S DO IT!

At first I was apathetic to this whole movement, I didn’t care that people were writing him in, but I wasn’t going to do it. But now I’ve got people all the way from Wayne Gretzky to the nobodies on message boards telling me that I shouldn’t want Rory in the game, and that voting for him would make me less of a hockey fan. Well I’ll be damned if anyone’s going to tell me who I want to see in the all-star game. I think this is a good oppritunity to show that it’s the fans of this sport that should have the say in what they want to see out there. It’s not going to hurt the game, in fact it might make it better. A lot of these “unskilled” guys have some cool tricks (think Marek Malik’s shoot-out goal last year) and if that’s who the fans want to see then that’s who should be there!

Over at MySpace, the Rory group has 729 members (including fan websites for many other NHL teams). The site has pictures, quotes, some links, some embedded YouTube videos, and a wall with 192 comments. The group moderator has sent out four eight bulletins to members in the last two five days reminding members to vote for Rory. There is also a Rory MySpace message board with 74 posts.

With just one week left in voting for the 2007 NHL all-star game, the improbable write-in campaign for Vancouver Canucks defenseman Rory Fitzpatrick is in sight of victory. Week 6 voting totals released by the NHL December 27 show Fitzpatrick in the #3 spot, with the top 2 vote getters after voting concludes January 2 getting a starting spot in the lineup.

Week 6 voting totals out, Canes have three forwards in top 14 of 32 slots

In All-Star game voting totals covering the first six weeks of balloting, Carolina Hurricanes candidate Erik Cole was in 8th place with 245,049 votes, Rod Brind’Amour in 9th place with 233,347 votes, and Eric Staal in 14th place with 155,831 votes. There are 32 forwards with vote totals reported. Last week the 3 Canes candidates were 8th, 9th, and 13th.

Cam Ward still 4th in goalie votes

In goal, Cam Ward remained in 4th place of 9 candidates with 187,374 votes.

Vote often through January 2

Voting runs through January 2

There’s a direct link to the English language US ballot for the 2007 NHL All-Star game, or you can use http://tinyurl.com/yzu27e. Remember to vote Rod Brind’Amour, Erik Cole, and Eric Staal for Eastern conference forwards, and Cam Ward for Eastern Conference goalie.

Technorati has generated a neat updating graph that shows blog posts that mention Rory Fitzpatrick for the last 60 days.

and that mention the NHL All-Star game in the last 60 days.

The HF Boards

The campaign jumpstarted on November 19 with a thread started by Sabres fan Steve Schmid on HFBoards. By January 9 there were 13 discussion threads with a total of 11,442 posts and 352,776 views. Another good Rory discussion thread is at the official Canucks.com message board, which as of January 8 had 1,757 posts and 57,940 views.

VoteForRory.com

Steve Schmid’s website VoteForRory has great links on the left side of his page to YouTube videos, and the Facebook and MySpace groups devoted to the campaign. Check it out. By the end of voting on January 2, the site had received over 339,000 hits, and had climbed over 361,000 hits by January 9.

As of January 31, there were 31 different Rory Fitzpatrick videos up at YouTube, the most famous being two satirical attack ads posted december 10, one focused on Nicklas Lidstrom and viewed 42,407 times, and the other focused on Scott Niedermeyer and viewed 45,303 times.

There’s a direct link to the English language US ballot for the 2007 NHL All-Star game, or you can use http://tinyurl.com/yzu27e. Remember to vote Rod Brind’Amour, Erik Cole, and Eric Staal for Eastern conference forwards, and Cam Ward for Eastern Conference goalie.

With just two weeks left in voting for the 2007 NHL all-star game, the improbable write-in campaign for Vancouver Canucks defenseman Rory Fitzpatrick is in sight of victory. Week 5 voting totals released by the NHLDecember 20 show Fitzpatrick in the #2 spot, with the top 2 vote getters after voting concludes January 2 getting a starting spot in the lineup.

In All-Star game voting totals covering the first five weeks of balloting, Carolina Hurricanes candidate Erik Cole was in 8th place with 225,006 votes, Rod Brind’Amour in 9th place with 207,329 votes, and Eric Staal in 13th place with 137,052 votes. There are 32 forwards with vote totals reported. High write-in candidate was Thomas Vanek with 133,195.

Cam Ward still 4th in goalie votes

In goal, Cam Ward was in 4th place of 9 with 158,627 votes. Cristobal Huet was the highest write-in candidate with 90,859 votes.

Vote often through January 2

Voting runs through January 2

There’s a direct link to the English language US ballot for the 2007 NHL All-Star game, or you can use http://tinyurl.com/yzu27e. Remember to vote Rod Brind’Amour, Erik Cole, and Eric Staal for Eastern conference forwards, and Cam Ward for Eastern Conference goalie.